Experienced Electrician! Here to Answer Any and All Growroom Electrical Questions

wyteboi

Well-Known Member
I asked a question about building a panel with timer and breaker sub panel but now I can't find it. I looked all over the place but nothing. I am however getting answers from someone asking about other topics. I will include them later as I can't go back without loosing this message.
I don't know how this happened.

Diablo69
??:confused:??
 

MRGREEN1

Member
I have a qick question for you and i haven't read any of the posts so i dont know if anyone has asked this but how many watts maximum can you run on a 15 amp circuit breaker?
 

archaeo

Member
I have a qick question for you and i haven't read any of the posts so i dont know if anyone has asked this but how many watts maximum can you run on a 15 amp circuit breaker?
I believe on a 120V circuit you can run about 1800 watts PEAK on 15 amp. Probably safer to run about 80% of that at any one time.
 
Thought I would ask in here as well as my own thread.

I have an Australian light fitting, it has four connections. One is marked "L" and another is marked "Earth". The other two are not marked.

Standard power cabling has three wires.

Brown = Live
Yellow = Earth
Blue = Neutral

After wiring it the way I thought it should be I got nothing, I tested the neutral in both of the unmarked points.

Any ideas?
 

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wyteboi

Well-Known Member
I have a qick question for you and i haven't read any of the posts so i dont know if anyone has asked this but how many watts maximum can you run on a 15 amp circuit breaker?
1300 NO MORE! <-- that is 75 % of the 15 amps.
(1800watts is MAXING it out)

:joint:
 

wyteboi

Well-Known Member
Thought I would ask in here as well as my own thread.

I have an Australian light fitting, it has four connections. One is marked "L" and another is marked "Earth". The other two are not marked.

Standard power cabling has three wires.

Brown = Live
Yellow = Earth
Blue = Neutral

After wiring it the way I thought it should be I got nothing, I tested the neutral in both of the unmarked points.

Any ideas?
its probably a "switched" light socket .(meaning it needs a switch to run)
not sure how to hook it up though ?
 

FreeLeaf

Active Member
Fist off thanks to the electricians on this thread that take the time to help others. Now i have read through a lot of this thread but not all of it.
I have a question. I will be swapping out my 400w with a 1000w digital as soon as I get this wiring straight. I have to run a 20 amp home run from my breaker on the side of the house to a back closet. I will be laying 12 gauge romex wire but I am a little confused on wether I need 12/2 or 12/3. I understand the 12/3 has 2 hot wires and can be used to run a 2nd 20 amp line in the future if I need it. Is this true? Should I use the 12/3 in case I need to expand my power usage in the future? The 12/3 costs 50% more than the 12/2.
Thanks in advance
 

curioushiker

Active Member
Fist off thanks to the electricians on this thread that take the time to help others. Now i have read through a lot of this thread but not all of it.
I have a question. I will be swapping out my 400w with a 1000w digital as soon as I get this wiring straight. I have to run a 20 amp home run from my breaker on the side of the house to a back closet. I will be laying 12 gauge romex wire but I am a little confused on wether I need 12/2 or 12/3. I understand the 12/3 has 2 hot wires and can be used to run a 2nd 20 amp line in the future if I need it. Is this true? Should I use the 12/3 in case I need to expand my power usage in the future? The 12/3 costs 50% more than the 12/2.
Thanks in advance
You have it right but if you are not going to add a sub panel to control,(re-route) the power once you get it to the closet then I would just run the 12/2. I know lotsa people run wires to here and there but we need a fire due to a botched wire job like the NRA needs another drive by shooting.
I am by far a professional when it comes to wiring but if there was ever a place to cut corners wiring would not be it.
If I were you I would at least wire a 4 outlet gang to you closet fed from at least a 20 amp fuse using a 10/2 wire. That way you would have no less than Four outlets to use. You would have your plug for your light, an exhaust fan and maybe even a smaller fan for extra air circulation.
If none of this fits hold on cause Roland and or Wyteboi are gonna chime in soon.
See-ya.
 

AquafinaOrbit

Well-Known Member
Freeleaf- Really its up to you. Yes 12/3 can run two 20amp circuits as the neutral can be shared between the red and black conductors. If you need that though is not something we can answer for you. To help your decision though just remember to get the load take the watts and divide by the nominal wattage, then take into account that a continuous load circuit(3hrs+ of run time) is to be rated at 80% of its max power or just multiply by 1.25. So for example 1000watts/120=8.3x1.25=10.4Amps is about what that light will be pulling. Now do you need the separate circuit? No idea, but if your going to eventually add more lights or climate control devices like AC or heat then yes it would be a good idea.
 

newb19547

Well-Known Member
I got a question. I live in a house that was made into 2 "apartments". Our power blows alot and we have to go switch the breaker. We do use a few 1500 heaters, but we have them plugged in to our downstairs room. If we have 2 of them plugged in upstairs it blows the power..hence them being plugged in downstairs. But the weird thing is our power blows when NOTHING else has been turned on for hours.....ie. we have everything we normally do on, then an hour or more later...the power goes out upstairs and the heaters plugged in downstairs are still fine. We have 3 bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs and I have a feeling that they are all wired together. I think there might even be 1 room downstairs on the same circuit as well. Could that be possible? We also think that maybe something from our neighbors apartment might be on one of our circuits because when our power went..we heard them screaming and whatnot right after. So basically our power goes out at random times...not everyday...but close it seems, and when we have turned nothing new on for at least an hour before it happens. Our landlord just installed 2 electric heaters downstairs and it seems the outages have been more frequent since then, even though we have those 2 turned off all the time. It really sucks because I want to upgrade my lights but there is no way in hell I can if the powers blowing as it is. Could you give me some possibilities on what the problem is and what can be done to fix it? Sorry if its kind of hard to get what I mean, lol. Its late.....
 

wyteboi

Well-Known Member
I got a question. I live in a house that was made into 2 "apartments". Our power blows alot and we have to go switch the breaker. We do use a few 1500 heaters, but we have them plugged in to our downstairs room. If we have 2 of them plugged in upstairs it blows the power..hence them being plugged in downstairs. But the weird thing is our power blows when NOTHING else has been turned on for hours.....ie. we have everything we normally do on, then an hour or more later...the power goes out upstairs and the heaters plugged in downstairs are still fine. We have 3 bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs and I have a feeling that they are all wired together. I think there might even be 1 room downstairs on the same circuit as well. Could that be possible? We also think that maybe something from our neighbors apartment might be on one of our circuits because when our power went..we heard them screaming and whatnot right after. So basically our power goes out at random times...not everyday...but close it seems, and when we have turned nothing new on for at least an hour before it happens. Our landlord just installed 2 electric heaters downstairs and it seems the outages have been more frequent since then, even though we have those 2 turned off all the time. It really sucks because I want to upgrade my lights but there is no way in hell I can if the powers blowing as it is. Could you give me some possibilities on what the problem is and what can be done to fix it? Sorry if its kind of hard to get what I mean, lol. Its late.....
running the same circuit all over the house is kinda normal for some. (whatever is easier for the electrician at that time, they usually dont think about the future)
it sounds like the nighbors are blowing your breakers ? did they get 2 new heaters too?
do u have any idea how big the "service" is? 100, 200 ?
 

wyteboi

Well-Known Member
Fist off thanks to the electricians on this thread that take the time to help others. Now i have read through a lot of this thread but not all of it.
I have a question. I will be swapping out my 400w with a 1000w digital as soon as I get this wiring straight. I have to run a 20 amp home run from my breaker on the side of the house to a back closet. I will be laying 12 gauge romex wire but I am a little confused on wether I need 12/2 or 12/3. I understand the 12/3 has 2 hot wires and can be used to run a 2nd 20 amp line in the future if I need it. Is this true? Should I use the 12/3 in case I need to expand my power usage in the future? The 12/3 costs 50% more than the 12/2.
Thanks in advance
a 12/2 is perfect for a 1000 and the fans to go with. If you were to get 12/3 then when u upgrade to 2 circuits then u will have to share a neutral. that is fine if u just need that one last fan on it.... but the chances are if u need another circuit then you need a "full circuit" and using 12/3 for 2 circuits is just "skimping" on the $ . just stick with the 12/2 and if u need more then run another 12/2.
i am pretty sure that code used to allow this , but i am not gonna recommend.:bigjoint:
(i would also say 1800 watts is the max I would run on a 20amp/12 wire circuit.
:joint:
 

bmiquet

Member
My situation has gone from bad to worse.

So things have gone from bad to worse.

I concluded that the red wire in the 100amp pony box was dead and hence half the box was dead.

As a temporary solution I restructured the electrical needs of my space to run off just the 4 circuits still in operation.

Today the other circuits stopped working. I am away on business (rushing back tomorrow am) and need to fix the problem fast as my temperature is dropping rapidly and too much dark isn't good for anyone.

I am guessing the problem is with the main breaker.

Any thoughts on how I can get electricity back to my space?
 

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riproor

Active Member
Fist off thanks to the electricians on this thread that take the time to help others. Now i have read through a lot of this thread but not all of it.
I have a question. I will be swapping out my 400w with a 1000w digital as soon as I get this wiring straight. I have to run a 20 amp home run from my breaker on the side of the house to a back closet. I will be laying 12 gauge romex wire but I am a little confused on wether I need 12/2 or 12/3. I understand the 12/3 has 2 hot wires and can be used to run a 2nd 20 amp line in the future if I need it. Is this true? Should I use the 12/3 in case I need to expand my power usage in the future? The 12/3 costs 50% more than the 12/2.
Thanks in advance
ya go with the 12/3 cause you never know when your gonna need more power. if you plan on running wire on the outside of your house, either use UF wire as its rated for outside, or if your just going to use romex, put it in some pvc conduit to protect it, that stuff is dirt cheap and easy to work with.
 

newb19547

Well-Known Member
running the same circuit all over the house is kinda normal for some. (whatever is easier for the electrician at that time, they usually dont think about the future)
it sounds like the nighbors are blowing your breakers ? did they get 2 new heaters too?
do u have any idea how big the "service" is? 100, 200 ?
Not sure about the neighbors or how big the service is. Is there a place I can look?
 
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